We Didn't Start the Fire
by Roseprincess1
Summary: Number Six in the "Angel" series. Alyssa's parents follow them back to the ark. The autobots must deal with thier attitudes while prepareing for a possible Decepticon attack.(Slight rating chage here folks. Gonna get wild in a few chaps! Thks RP1)
1. Default Chapter

We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 1

You would think after the fiasco at the airport Alyssa's family would have done just about any thing but follow us back to the ark. That how ever is exactly what they did. Either they had a lot of nerve or they just really wanted to see more about what was going on. Personally I suspected the latter. They just wanted to see if they could find a reason to prove to Alyssa that her relationship with Jack wouldn't work. I actually thought that was kinda low. After all she was a legal adult and if she wanted to be with him it was her business. I guess it's a parent thing, I was still waiting for my own set of folks to put the power of God on Optimus.

Anyhow, they followed us back and moved in there. I guess they were staying because they wanted to convince Alyssa that she shouldn't be staying here. It wasn't going to work but that didn't mean they weren't going to make our lives miserable while they took their sweet time realizing this.

It also went without saying that this made her mom and step dad less than popular with the autobots. To say that they were more than a bit fond of us was something of an understatement. So when her step dad got to the ark and started going off on every single thing that came with in his line of vision they took it personal.

"And just who, might I ask," Jazz glared out from underneath his visor at her step dad, "Are you calling a FREAK?"

"Well I… uhh.. I just mean that…."

Sunstreaker walked up and helped Jazz glare, "Oh he means were not human right?"

"No I just…"

"OH I get it," Jazz shook his head, "you think your better than autobots because you carbon based don't cha?"

I was sitting in the main room watching them. Alyssa wasn't very far off, with a slightly distressed look on her face. As much as she wanted to see her step dad get taken down a peg or two it was still hard for her to see him getting it. Jazz was not really that mad but Sunny really seemed pissed.

"Do you want to call 'em off?" I asked.

"Do I want to?" she shot back, "NO, but I think we should at least. I mean it's not like he meant to tick them off."

"Yes he did either that or his mouth and his head really aren't in communication."

"Ya just now noticed that?" she sighed.

I shrugged and turned back to them, several others had heard what her step dad had called Optimus and Jack. I think it's safe to say they didn't like it any more than Jazz and Sunny. There was a group of about five of them now, glaring down at the man and verbally tearing him a new one.

"Come on," I hopped down from my perch, "let's go break this up before one of them steps on him."

I headed over they all got out of my way, and I headed over to him. He wasn't much taller than me so I was able to look him in the eyes.

"So tell me some thing will you?"  
"What?" He asked.

"How dose it feel to be judged by some one you barely know?"

He got a bit red over that one, "I suppose you think this is funny don't you?"

"Actually, I don't," I shrugged, "I'd have every right to considering you called my husband a metal freak."

"I still think that's sick. How can you have a relationship with him?"

"Get you mind out of the gutter. There's a lot more to love than that, for me any how."

I grabbed him by the arm and began to tug him away from the guys, "Back off boys."

They cleared for me like the red sea for Moses and I dragged him back to where Alyssa's mom still was in the rooms. She was taking it a bit better than her husband was, she wasn't ranting or calling them names. She was just in a bit off shock, still trying to get all of this to make sense in her poor head. So she probably wasn't expecting me to come dragging in her husband and deposit him on the couch.

"Mam?"

She turned to look up at me, "Do me a favor will you? Try to remind your husband that he's a guest here, and that they have every right to throw him out on his ears if he keeps on being rude."

She sobered up some and looked at him, "you were being rude?"

"I didn't think so." He muttered.

"I classify calling them metal freaks repeatedly as being rude. So please do us both a favor and keep him out of trouble."

I turned and headed back out to find Alyssa there waiting for me.

"Hey," She stopped me.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have…" I started.

She laughed, "Hey, don't take this the wrong way. I was going to thank you for saving his narrow minded butt."

"Oh, well He is your step dad."  
She sighed, "Yeah but he's being a royal jerk. He's not this bad, even when I'm staying at the house."

I shook my head, "Well hopefully he's going to come around some. I think given enough time every one will get used to it."  
"S'not like we are gonna change our minds any time soon right?"

I grinned back and nodded, "That's for sure. Anyhow, I'm going to the command center you wanna come with?"

"Nah, I promised to hold wires for 'Jack, talk later" She waved and headed off deeper into the base toward the lab.

I waved back and took off to find Optimus. I finally managed to locate him up there where I thought he'd be. What I wasn't expecting was to find him there frowning at the computer screen. Prowl was up there with him and I got the impression that what ever it was that was scrolling down telatran one had both of them worried. I didn't want to stick my nose where it didn't belong but I thought it might turn out to be something important. So I headed over there and proceeded to find out what was going on.

"Optimus? What's wrong?"

He looked up from the screen and then looked down at me. I could tell he was about to say something and I had a pretty good idea what it was going to be. I wasn't going to have any of it.

"Let me guess, the over grown pop gun and his lackeys are getting ready to cause trouble again aren't they?"

Prowl's mouth actually twisted up to one side and he managed to grin down at me. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Keep guessing what we are either talking about or doing," Optimus told me.

"Oh that," I laughed a bit, "I'm not doing any thing special, I just have a bit of an idea about how a military works."  
"Her dad was a drill sergeant when he was young," Prime told his second.

"Ooooh," Prowl replied not completely believing either of us for the moment.

I let out a sigh and brought us all back to the problem, "So what are we going to do about Meggy and his goons?"

"Meggy?" prowl's optic ridges shot up.

"Will you stop that!" I smacked him on the leg, "quit being surprised by every thing I say, and yes He tried to kill me so I have a right to call him goofy nick names."

Prowl saluted, "Yes mam." Then grinned, "As for what we are going to do about them, nothing has happened for the moment so the best thing we can do now is to keep our eyes open and try to be ready for any thing that might be going on."

"Sounds like a plan to me," I nodded. Then I noticed Optimus was staring down at me. "Problem?"  
"I _hope_ you don't think your going to get involved in any of this." He told me.

"I plan on shoving my DE up Megatron's nearest orifice and pulling the trigger if he messes with me again, is what I plan on doing."

"You are not going to get involved Angel," Ops stubborn streak kicked in.

I however have a nice healthy one of my own and it also switched on, "I plan on doing what ever I feel like. IF he comes in here and starts shooting at you and my friends again you better believe I'm going to defend my self!"

"Your going to get your self killed is what you're going to do!" Prowl interjected.

We both turned and proceeded to glare down at him and up at him, then ordered in perfect unison, "YOU KEEP OUT OF THIS!"

With that we walked off into the base. My self determined to put that 2000.00 firearm I had purchased to good use if Megatron gave me the chance and Optimus bound and determined to keep me from doing that. Prowl stood there with a sheepish look on his face for a few seconds and then grinned and rubbed the back of his head.

"Old married couple." He smiled again and then went back to going over his read out.

So far this had been one heck of a week, and I couldn't help but wonder right then what else could possibly happen.


	2. We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 2

We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 2

The next morning, I hadn't gotten over my disagreement with Optimus about what I was going to do if the 'Cons showed, but I had let the subject drop. This was mainly due to the fact that no one could really anticipate what was going to happen and that all either of us could really do was try to be ready. I wasn't to thrilled that they wanted to come back and start some thing else, and Prime wasn't to thrilled that I wanted to take my part. It just wasn't worth fighting over though, like I said we couldn't control it. So we got over the spat for the most part and went to bed on good terms.

We got up, got dressed and headed for the commissary. I AM NOT, a morning person. To be perfectly honest, neither is Op'. For the sake of every one under his command he'd been doing a good job of faking it for the last few million years. I on the other hand didn't even try. Sideswipe caught on to this as I headed over to get some caffeine in my blood and began to needle me a bit.

"Good morning sunshine," he smiled at me.

"Uh huh," I muttered and headed over to sit down next to Prime.

Siders seemed to find my discomfort that much more amusing and laughed all the way to his table over there by his brother. Sunny found it amusing too and had a good chortle at my expense. One that he kept up until the moment he saw Alyssa's parents walk in. The grin fell and he got his typical frown back. Siders followed where he was looking and an identical look appeared on the red twin's face. I raised my eyebrows at Optimus over the display. He only shook his head at me and shrugged.

"Hey Sunny?"

He turned to look at me and the frown faded some, "Yes mam?"

"Don't call me mam," I growled.

Sideswipe grinned and elbowed him, "Told ya."

Sunstreaker actually flushed, "Sorry Miss Angel, what do you need?"

"I was wondering why you're suddenly so protective of Alyssa. I mean she did …" I trailed off.

"Hehe," Sunny grinned, "Well yeah I guess she did, but I won at pong."

Sideswipe looked up and rolled his optics.

"I thought you'd be mad at her."

He laughed, "How can I be mad at any one who's THAT good at gaming, I mean really?"

"Well I'm glad you guys can get along then, just do me one favor will you?"

"Sure," He nodded.

"PLEASE try to at least be tolerant of her Step dad? I mean he is her step dad after all."

Sunstreaker rolled his optics and shook his head, "if you say so Miss Angel, but I still don't like him."  
"Thanks Sun'" I smiled at him and he actually blushed a bit.

While all of that was going on across the room, several other autobots that hadn't been sworn to good behavior were letting Alyssa's parents have it with both barrels.

"And exactly what gives you the right to call us any thing?" Mirage glared.

"Yeah," Tracks added, "Do you have any idea how messed up your own world is?"

"What do you mean by that?" Her mom asked.

"Oh please," Jazz told them, "All you seem to do here is fight with one another."

"That's not true!"

"Not to mention trying to cram things down people's throats," Bluestreak called.

"Yeah," Smokescreen added, "Why do you humans think your way of thinking is the only way? And what right do you have to tell us were going to the Pit?"

"I never!" Her step dad shot back.

"No," Jazz continued, "But you're the type that would."

"Well I'm sorry you think that, but really…." He tried again.

"But really nothing!" This was little Cliffjumper, "We're out there getting our hides smeared all over the place trying to keep you lil' creepy crawlies safe from the cons and what do you do to try and thank us? You turn on us the second we even look at you cross eyed."

I caught this and looked across the commissary, "This is going to make me crazy Op."

The leader shook his head and then turned to look at his men. All of which visibly wilted under the look he gave them.

"That's quiet enough now."

All of them looked a bit sheepish, but no one apologized. I guess no one had ever really taken into consideration that they were out there trying to help us. The government had never done any thing to try and hurt them, but they hadn't exactly taken a liking to them.

It pretty much should have ended there with the guys being called down and Alyssa's parents left with some things to think about. It didn't however; no in fact it got worse. It got worse when they saw the aforementioned girl and her engineer walk into the commissary arm in arm. Arm in arm, and Wheeljack shrunk down to human size. That one caught them off guard and left them there gaping as she walked over to get her coffee and he changed back to his real size. Alyssa turned back with the cup in hand and suddenly caught the look on their faces, one that was some where between shock and amazement.

"What's the matter?" She asked.

"How… how did he..?" He mother stuttered.

"How'd he what?" She blinked and then it registered, "Oh! You mean how did he get down to human size? Hehe he's an engineer mom, he's got all kinds of fun toys" She winked.

"But, ahh… okay."

Her Mom sat there for a second and thought about it, then some thing else occurred to her. I could tell that it dawned on her as the look of utter horror slowly crept over the woman's face. She looked at Alyssa and then looked at me, and then looked back to her daughter.

"Oh no," she muttered softly.

"What?" Her husband looked up.

"Something just occurred to me," She kept that look on her face and stared at us some more.

"What just occurred to you? You look about like I feel over this whole mess."

"It's just; I mean I was wondering something."

I motioned for her and caught her attention. She got a bit of a panicked look and then jumped up and headed over to the human sized table I was sitting at.

"Angel," she got deadly serious.

"What's on you mind, you look like you just swallowed a bug or something."

She nodded almost frantically and set down beside me, "I need you to tell me something Angel, and I need you to promise to me that you're going to be honest, because if you're going to lie to me then I don't want to…"

"Just ask me mam," I sighed.

She shook her head, "Okay, okay, what I need to know is where you and Alyssa stay."

"Come again?"

"Where do you two sleep at night?" She demanded.

I wasn't catching on to where the woman was going with all of this so I just shrugged and answered, "Our rooms."

"And those are where?" She prompted.

"Well, I stay with Optimus and Alyssa is with Jack."

All the color faded from the woman's face and her eyebrows jumped up to her hairline like she'd just seen a rat or something.

"YOU stay with THEM!?"

"Uhhhh… yeah…" I still didn't see any problems.

"Alyssa stays in the same ROOM as a GUY!??"

Now it finally hit me and I had to giggle over the reason she was flipping out.

"You're worried about that?" I snickered.

"And your not," she seemed out raged.

"Why should I be worried? I mean really." I sighed at the woman. "Don't you think you're over reacting just a bit?"

"I AM NOT OVER REACTING!!" She raged at me, "My daughter and a guy are sharing the same ROOM!"

I blinked at the woman a few more times, trying to guess what the problem was. Frankly, I thought she was being goofy. I mean really, all things considered, that was the last thing the woman needed to be worrying about. Still she turned around to light into Alyssa and I put another notch on my weird meter. I was thinking that things couldn't possibly get worse after all of this. I was to be very quickly proven wrong.


	3. We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 3

We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 3

Alyssa's mom found out that she was staying in the room with Jack and nearly had a coronary. For some reason this irked the woman on the fundamental level. I don't know what the heck she was thinking but it really didn't seem to be that big of an issue with me. Honestly it wasn't like any thing was going to happen, so there shouldn't have been any problems with it. Besides even if something DID happen, which I'm not sure is even possible, it wasn't any one else's business because we were both over the age of consent.

Still her mom was flipping out because she was worried of what some one out there, who I don't know, would think if they found out her daughter was in the same room as a guy she wasn't married to. The fact that they had found a way to shrink down to human size made it that much worse. It really, really had her going nuts. So she was letting Alyssa have it.

"No I don't see what the problem is mom," She sighed.

"Its appearances! What's every one going to think when they see you going into the same room as a guy?"  
I gave the woman a flat look and proceeded to ask, "Everone who?"

"Every one who sees her!" The woman shouted back.

"Umm… Mom I don't know if you realized this, but there isn't any one who's really going to care, here to see it."

"Of course someone's going to care!" Her mom continued, "I don't want people thinking my daughter is a woman of loose morals!"

"What people?" I asked her back, "The only ones around here that are going to see it are the autobots and they couldn't care less."

"I don't care what kind of amoralistic problems they have here! I will not have it do you hear me! I will not!"

"And I thought you're step dad was bad," I muttered to Alyssa.

"You have no idea," She replied, then turned to her mom. "Look would it make you feel better if I moved into my own room for now?"

"What do you mean for now?"

"I mean while you're staying here, would it make you feel better if I had a private room?"

"Yes, in fact I demand that you get your own room! At least Angel is actually married to hers, if she wants to stay in her own room she can."

"That's so generous," I muttered again, "Well come on, lets get you moved into one of the other rooms." I look up to Optimus and Jack, "Is that okay with you two?"

"No it's…. Ooof!" Jack promptly got elbowed by Prime.  
"That's fine Angel," Optimus told us, "You need some help moving her things?"

"Nah I think we can handle this one." I grabbed her and hauled her out of the commissary.

Half way down the hall she exploded, "What's wrong with her!"

"You tell me, she's your mom."

We finally made to her and Jack's room and got all of her stuff gathered up and took it to one of the guest rooms.

It was a pretty nice room to be honest but it wasn't with Wheeljack and that just ticked her off. But she wanted to humor her mom so she moved in there and did her best to make her self comfortable. One of the nice things about this room was that some one had installed its own bath room. She went in there for a second and left me sitting on the bed playing around with her lap top. She was in there for a few seconds and then all of sudden there was a strange sound came from in there. I went and knocked on the door seeing if she'd managed to fall in or something.

"Alyssa? You alive in there?"

"Yes," Came the muffled reply, "Can you ahh... do me big favor?"

"Sure what …." It suddenly occurred to me what was going on and I almost cracked up. "You're kidding?"

"DO I SOUND LIKE I'M KIDDING!"

"Apparently not. Do you need me to go in to town?" I asked.

"Yes please, you know what to get right?"

I nodded even though she couldn't see me, "yeah I know, but what kind?"

"Hang on; toss the cell phone in here will you? Then when you get to town call me and I'll tell you."

"Okay," I got her phone out of her bag and stuck my hand through the door, "Need any thing else?"

"If I think of something I'll let you know when you call me okay."

Again I nodded, "Okay then."

I headed out into the base, two steps into the hall however I ran into Jack.

"IS she okay in there? I can't believe that her mom said that."

I looked up at him, "That makes two of you."  
He sighed, "So is she coming back out?"

"Ahhh… not for a while, I kinda have to go into town and get some thing for her."

He got a worried look, "Is she sick?"

I promptly blushed wondering how to explain this, "Nooooo… She just kinda.. needs some things."

I took off and left him there standing out side the door wondering what the problem was. I got to the main room, and found Prime. He how ever was busy at the moment. Some thing had caught the attention of him and Prowl, so they couldn't be spared from business at the moment. I had to wrack my brain to think of one of them that I could get to give me a ride. Thankfully right then Jazz walked by.

"Hey Kitten," he grinned at me. "By the way do you know what's the matter with Wheeljack? He's standing out side the room Aly had to move into."

"Well she kinda can't come out right now," I blushed again.

Jazz thankfully is a lot more perceptive than most folks give him credit for so I guess he read the look on my face.

"Hmm… I'm guessing you need a ride into town?"

"How could you tell?" I blinked up at him.

"Hey kitten, I know a lot more about humans than most of the guys around here. Come on get in"

He changed into his alt mode and I hopped in. "Do I even want to know how you found out that lil' tidbit?"

"Its amazing what you can find out when you sneak Carly's copy of vogue," He laughed, "And if you ever tell her that it was me…"

"You'll deny it?"

"Right down to my spark core Kitten."

I had to giggle over that one. About ten minutes later we made it to the Portland Rite aid and I headed in.

Over the cell phone I got the shopping list and headed in, "Uh huh…. Okay yah they got 'em." I paused for a second and listened, "Hmmmm…any thing else? Okay then I'll be back in about ten minutes."  
I paused and listened to her rant on the other end of the line as I headed back up to the counter. I had to keep my mouth clamped shut because I heard most of one half of a shouted conversation between her and Wheeljack. I guess she was getting a bit irritated at all of that. I mean I don't know why it never even occurred to either of us that this might happen. We assumed that it wouldn't be a problem, and it seems the two of us had assumed wrong. It made me wonder when my turn was going to be, but considering I had been hurt and sick, it might not be mine for a while yet. I shouldn't have been laughing at her, it wasn't right to get the giggles over my friend's discomfiture but it was one of those situations that you see in sitcoms. Well close any how.

We finally made it back to the ark and I headed in. I had made sure that the clerk gave me a paper sack because the last thing I wanted to do was embarrass the girl more by broadcasting it to the rest of the base. I got back to her room and found half of the population of the ark standing out there trying to guess what was going on.

Sunny and Siders where trying to get her out by offering to set up some more games. Jack was trying to get her out by promising to be good to her parents until they left. Not to mention all of the other things that all of the rest of them were offering. It was a funny situation to say the least. It wasn't really Alyssa that I thought was funny; it was the way that the guys were acting about the whole thing. IF human guys ever behaved that way most of the women on this planet would die of shock.

I managed to shove my way through the crowd and headed in to give her the stuff she needed. Back out side, Wheeljack caught the look on Jazz's face and realized that he knew something.

"Out with it Jazz!" The engineer demanded.

"Uh uh…I'm more scared of what the femme will do than you Jack." He headed off and Jack took off after him.

"Come on tell me! I want to know what's wrong with her."

I was back to my spot on the bed and could hear the bag rattling as she pulled her supplies out.

"Thanks Angel, I promise to pay you back."

I grinned, "Don't worry about it. Oh and the heresy's kisses are on the house."


	4. We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 4

We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 4

I managed to get out of her room with out being attacked by too many more autobots, still this left the boys completely baffled by what was going on. I personally had no intention of telling them what the problem was. Jazz was right, a woman in that position is much more scary than any thing else that could possibly happen to some of them. So this left them to try and guess what was going on. I would like to say that they finally figured it out, but even after Wheeljack spent ten minutes twisting Jazz's arm, literally, they finally gave up.

I had hoped the base would calm back down at that point, I should have known better. I had just made my way into the command center when once again spotted Optimus and his upper officers there looking at the screen. All of them had looks on their faces that told me peace and quiet was coming to an end, and this war was about to go red hot once more. I sighed and headed over to him, craning my neck to look up at telatran's screen.

"So?" I called.

Optimus, Prowl, Ironhide, and Jazz, all turned to look down at me.

"What's going on?" I demanded.

"We think we've found out what the Decepticons are up to Miss Angel," Prowl told me. "They seem to be going the geothermal route once again."

"Yah," Jazz nodded, "Only this time Kitten, they ain't drilling any holes. This time they found them selves a super volcano and are trying to make the thing go boom."

"Super Volcano," I shook my head, "I didn't think there were any more of those things around?"

"Oh there is one," Optimus told me as he snapped the monitor on, "Right smack in the middle of the continental US."

I wracked my brains for a few seconds and then it hit me; it was kinda obvious when you thought about it. Where in the states could you go to a place and see things that were a demonstration of the geothermic process? What place did millions of people ever single year flock to, just to see that very thing?

I looked up at the monitor as the picture snapped into being and groaned, "Yellow stone?"

"Yellowstone," Optimus confirmed.

"You mean to tell me there's a giant volcano under Yellowstone national park, and no one knows about it?"

"No, they know about it," Prowl told me, "It's just been deemed not a danger to the public by your nation's government."  
"Well I knew we had morons running the thing, now I have proof." I sighed, "So what are we planning on doing about it?"

Once again all four of them looked down at me. Prowl, Jazz and Ironhide had the most smart ass grins I've ever seen plastered on their faces. Optimus on the other hand glared down at me from behind that mask and made it plain to me what he thought of my getting involved.

"What may I ask, do you mean by "WE?" He shot.

"Exactly what it sounds like, what are WE going to do about them?"  
He folded his arms and kept glaring, "I have no intention of letting you go any where near the Decepticons."

"I happen to be a legal adult," I told him back, "And despite the fact that I'm your life mate that doesn't make you my boss!"

"I didn't say it made me your boss, I just don't want you getting hurt."

"I don't plan on getting hurt. Besides you let the Whitwhicky kid fight, what

makes you think he's a better fighter than me?"

He looked up at the sky as if asking Primus for mercy from his deranged femme, "He may not be a better fighter than you Angel, but…"

Prowl raised his hand, "Can I say some thing?"  
Both of us turned to glare at him, "We are going to need some one to handle the rangers Optimus. I have a feeling that they wouldn't respond to us very well. So why don't you bring Miss Angel along and let her handle that end. While we look into what Megatron and the 'cons are up too."

I thought about that for a second, "I can live with that if you can."

I could tell that he didn't still think much of me going any where near any of them period, but this was all he was going to get for the moment.

"Very well, I think that's the best I'm going to get you to agree to right?" Optimus looked down at me.

"Basically," I smiled up at him sweetly.

He looked exasperated but he could live with all of this. I could still tell that he would have felt better if I had stayed there but I didn't think it was my place. If the people I loved where going off to try and save this stupid planet, then it was my place to make sure that they had some one there to back them up. Even if the only thing I did was something as simple as keeping ranger Smith under control.

I headed off to get packed and ran into Alyssa along the way. She was more than a bit hyper, be that because she had found out about the mission or had eaten all of the chocolate I couldn't tell.

"Hey!" she called, "Did you hear about what was going on?"

"Yeah I heard, what are you and Jack going with us?"

She grinned, "Well I'm going to help you go play liaison to the local staff while Jack, Optimus and guys try to make sure the place doesn't get blasted to the moon."

I groaned, "A volcano, right in the middle of Yellowstone. Someone must have been out of their mind when they put that park there."

"Who knows?" She shrugged, "I mean if it really is a super volcano, by the time the thing does blow up, chances are the US isn't going to be here any more."

"I know, but that's not the point," I shook my head, "Anyhow, let's go get the gear all packed up. Maybe we can keep them from getting on the locals nerves too bad."

We spent the rest of the day getting our stuff ready to travel again. So far there were just rumors about what the cons were up to but, I thought the faster that we get there. The more of a chance we have of stopping something before it actually happens.

Announcing that we were going with them, did cause one small problem. Alyssa's parents nearly flipped out when they found out. Not that they hadn't been flipping already but they were getting worse by the second. I was to the point of wondering if we could bring them along to use as bait for the Decipticons, when Jack did some thing. It was mean, and nasty, and he's probably going to pay for it at some later date. All things considered though, it was the best route he could have taken.  
One moment they were ranting, the next the two of them proceeded to go stiff as the proverbial posts and stop in the middle of what they were saying.

"Uhmmm…"I looked them up and down, "Did I miss something?"

Jack came walking around the corner with a very smug look on his face and a strange device in hand. He had apparently taken all that he could from her parents.

"Well what can I tell you Miss Angel, They were holding up the mission and so I took steps."  
Alyssa poked her not catatonic mother and then waved her hand in front of her face. "So what did you do?"

"I hit them with my Imoblizer," He grinned under there some where, "When making inventions, be sure that you always keep a copy of the blue prints some where."

I had to laugh, and wonder why this wasn't done before.

"So how long are they stuck like that?" I asked him.

"Till I turn it off," He answered. "And that's not going to be until we get back from this mission."

Alyssa giggled at this and then turned to face him, "you do realize that when you un-immobilize them that they are going to be incredibly pissed."

"Ask me if I care," He shot back, "They've annoyed half the base; they made you move out of our room. They have tormented every single person they have come in contact with in the last three days. It was this, or having Ratchet sedate them. That was the only two things I could think of to make them less of a problem."

"Well," she admitted, "I wont tell if you don't."

"I won't," I grinned. Let them wonder what happened."

The two of us had a good laugh at all of that and then ran off to finish getting packed. We got an interesting surprise when we finally came out of the rooms carrying our stuff and some camping gear that we thought we might need.

What we found was the two of them still in the middle of the room, but now surrounded by bio-hazard tape and with a lil' sign in front of them. I sat my bag down on the ground and walked over to see just what had been wrote on this thing. Some one had taken bright red paint and a very traditional paint brush, and with it had scrawled, "PLEASE DO NOT FEED!" on the sign. For some reason that struck me as the funniest thing I had seen in days. I put my face in both hands and wound up having to run to the bath room I was laughing so hard. I few seconds later I came out and heard as Prime discovered this little display and began demanding to know who had done this. I had given my word that I wouldn't say any thing and I meant it. Not even to him. I got some strange looks for the noises coming from me but I got out to the convoy before he managed to corner me.

I pretty well knew I was going to spend the whole trip to Yellowstone having him demand to know who did it. I shrugged it off. Besides, the culprits were going with us; I could always send him in their direction if he got too hyper.

Still all joking aside, I was more than a bit worried about this mess. I had a terrible feeling that something was going to happen. What I couldn't tell you, but as we pulled out my levity left and I began to seriously wonder just what we were getting into.


	5. We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 5

We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 5

What we were getting into turned out to be one of the biggest messes I've ever seen in my life. The trip there was nice and boring so I guess I got lulled into a false sense of security. I thought that they, the Decepticons would try to stop us before we got down there to the park. Some kind of ambush, some sort of trap, something. Nothing however happened. The trip was as peaceful as any trip could be. There were a few questions and Optimus STILL wanted to know who'd pulled the stunt with Alyssa's parents. But of the Cons there wasn't the least trace.

This of course made me begin to wonder if perhaps they had, gotten their intelligence wrong. Not that I doubted the intelligence of any of those that were involved, it's just that the human military has been known to stick its foot in its mouth more than once. So I thought that it might be possible for a similar mistake to get made here.

This was the line of thinking I was under was we pulled into the park and I got out of Prime to go and try to see if the rangers had seen any thing. They naturally hadn't and just as naturally were less than thrilled about having the Autobots take up residence inside of the park for any extended amount of time.

The fact remained though, that some one had seen the cons here and some one had found out what they were going to do. So until we were sure that this wasn't going to happen the Autobots, My self and Alyssa, were all here for the duration. It was the off season and so we were told that we could pretty much camp any where we wanted to, just that we were to not "Make trouble." I'm pretty sure some of the autobots would have liked to make a lot worse for that Yoyo than trouble but we were here on business not to fight with the local law.

So Alyssa and my self found a spot to set up camp for our selves and the Autobots all went out to look around the park and see if they could find any thing. To say that the first day was a disappointment was a bit of an understatement. Prowl seemed to take it personally that the intelligence may have been wrong; I get the feeling when he's in charge this didn't happen very often. Indeed that's what I have been told.

Personally I was starting to wonder if, not that they had been wrong, but that maybe the Cons had caught on and had decided to call off the sachem. I had just come to this conclusion and was going off to try and track down Optimus. I had no idea where he was in the park, and so I headed out on one of those 4 wheeler things to try and find him. You'd think a 45 foot tall bright red robot would be easy to spot in all of that green, but the park was thousands off miles wide and he could be any place. So that left me to drive around hoping I'd stumble across him.

I stumbled across something alright, but it didn't turn out to be my Autobot husband. What it turned out to be where the absent Decepticons in question. Considering where I found them, it wasn't a surprise that every one had missed them. It's not really a place that you would think robots would be inclined to go. In fact I think its something not even most people would spot if you weren't really looking. It was a strange little recession in the face of El Capitan' and it was the prefect hiding spot.

I saw what they were doing and that they were there, and I turned my bike around and headed back into the park trying to find any of the Autobots. What I didn't count on were those bloody birds. I saw them following me and I made plans to melt them down the next time I saw them close up. This is how the lil buzzards thanked us for letting them watch the gaming. Twerps. Still I had them on my tail and I had to find some of the ones with me or, this park really was going to go sky high.

I managed to get about a mile away from where I had seen them and then the little metal pains in the neck started dive bombing me, which was just what I needed to make this stupid situation even worse. I had no intention of taking any of this, so I pulled the bike over and focused on them.

"Come on polly," I glared, "Angel's got a surprise for you."

I did in fact have one, I nice fat 357 caliper surprise. I just love glazer safety rounds don't you? Charming little bullets that will tear apart all kinds of wonderful things, including it seemed, the crystals that transformer optics happened made out of. I got off one good shot at Buzzsaw's head and he took off squawking at the top of his little birdie vocal processor. Then I put the bike back in gear and headed back to camp, hoping that I would make it there before the crap storm hit full force.

I didn't. In fact by the time I had made it back to where I had left Alyssa, the Con's had decided to make them selves known. Part of me wanted to go track down ranger boy and gloat. The main part though wanted to find the Autobots and do what I could to try and help this mess. It didn't take me to long to find them. All I had to do was go the opposite direction from all of the critters that where now running screaming through the park. I didn't even want to think about what was going to be left of this national treasure once the fight was over but that would be something that I would have to deal with later on. Now I had to keep moving and pray that there would be something I could do when I finally found them.

Finding them turned out to be a shock all in and of its self. The place looked like some thing out of an old world war two movie, multiplied about fifty times. Most of the guys that had come with us where dug in at the base of El Capitan, and were doing all that they could to try and keep the bad guys from getting back to their mini base. This meant that the rest of them, the Decepticons were on the other side of no man's land. It was a fire fight that made most of the ones humans had ever seen look like a school yard brawl. Then there was the fact, that as if all of this wasn't bad enough, neither Optimus or Megatron where any where to be seen on either side of the line.

I did manage to spot Alyssa and Wheeljack about half way down the Autobot line and nearly got my self blown into lots of tiny pieces getting there. Once that was accomplished I demanded to know if any one had seen Prime.

Wheeljack got this look on his face of pure and utter dread; a very similar one was plastered on Alyssa's face. I remembered the feeling of dread I had as we were driving down here that made it that much worse.

"WHERE is he?!"

Jack swallowed and looked up, "Megatron took off up there, Prime followed him."

I craned my head back and looked up at the top of the mountain. "I'm GOING TO KILL HIM!!"

Weather I was referring to Megatron for dragging Optimus up there, or to Prime for following him, I couldn't even say my self. All I knew was that first when this was over some one was going to get a good old fashioned cussing, and second I needed to get up there as fast as possible.

"Jack," I yelled up at him.

"I know what your going to ask me Miss Angel, and the answer is no! I will not fly you up there."

"Fly me up there right now or I swear when we get back to the ark I'll … I'll…" I was at a loss of how to threaten the huge mech before me, but I knew that he was the only one that was going to be able to get me up there.

"Optimus is going to kill me for this," He sighed

Then he held his hand down for me and I got on.

"OH no you don't!" Alyssa demanded, "Get that thing back down here and let me get on too! I'm not letting either of you go off to do something stupid with out ME!"

The something stupid that she wanted to follow us into turned out to be a huge brawl between Optimus and Megatron right smack on the top of the mountain. To say that this was the most moronic thing I had ever seen would have fallen quite short. I don't know whose idea it was to go up to that place originally, but be it ego or just a desire to get away from the rest of the group. I thought it was just ridiculous.

It also turned out that the leaders weren't the only ones up there. Some of the cons had followed Megatron and some of the guys had followed Prime. Most of them were just standing there trying to think of something to either get them down or stop the fight. Other than that there wasn't that much that could be done. Still it kept on going and most of us kept on watching this just because we were at such a horrid loss of any way to help

I personally was digging my nails into my own hands so bad that I was probably going to need stitches once it was over. There was also the fact that I was less than happy to be up so high. I'm not really bothered by heights or by falling; it's just that quick stop at the end that bothers me so bad. Maybe it was because I had followed him, or maybe it was due to some connection that I didn't understand right then, but what happened next I can't really explain that well.

Prime stopped for just a fraction of a second in the fight and took measure of his opponent. That fraction of a second was all that one of the on looking cons needed, as some kind of beam weapon shot out from one of them and performed the transformer equivalent of a hamstringing on Optimus, Which in turn set me off, heading in the direction of my guy. I don't really remember if I screamed or not, but I do recall the second Megatron looked down at me and gave me that horrid grin of his. That made me just that much worse, and gave me one of the second best shots I've ever had in my career as a gun enthusiast. Once again I, not to mention Megatron learned just how well glazers worked on transformer optics. He screamed at the top of his lungs and fell back about two steps.

How Optimus got back up on his feet I don't know, but that was pretty much all he needed, those few seconds I had given Him. He got Megs with very good right hook to the jaw and the silver Decepticon went down. Optimus hit his own knees pretty hard and then looked over at me.

"Do you have any idea how STUPID that was?!" He told me.

"Hey it worked didn't it?"  
I moved to head over to him, and make sure that he was okay. I should have known that it wasn't going to end that easily. That despite taking the equivalent of buckshot to the eye, and getting his head knocked around, Megatron still wasn't down. He clawed his way back up and growled, literally growled. Then proceeded to launch him self at Prime. Optimus and I were both caught off guard, as I went flying to one side and Prime's head cracked soundly on the rock underneath him. For some reason right then stars exploded behind my own eyes. At the time I chalked it up to getting tossed to one side, and so I wasn't coherent enough to see what happened next.

What happened next is something I can't even begin to sum up. I didn't even really remember seeing Ironhide up there on the mountain any where, but he was. He was up there, and he was about to live up to his duty as Optimus' body guard. I heard a loud clang and then a very sickening scraping noise, and then screams.

I got my wits together by that point and managed to look up in time to see Jack jump off the side of El Capitan and head straight down. Optimus had managed to sit up, despite now having the transformer version of a concussion. I wanted to get up and go over to him but all I could do right then was stare at the empty space off the side of the mountain and wonder just what was going to happen next.


	6. We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 6

We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 6

Getting back to the ark turned out to be a very slow and almost painful to watch process, one of those things that you know happens in a war, but that you never really get to see. Speaking of war, this turned out to be one of the more violent battles that any of them had seen in a very long time. So the casualties were literally lined up in the hall, triage in all its gory glory.

I really hadn't known that much about how that system worked, but that night I learned it the hard way. Five categories of wounded, five priorities based on survival and seriousness of the injury. I really don't remember where in that classification that Optimus was placed, honestly I don't even know if the triage standards apply to the CO. All I do remember of that night was that it was a horrid mess, and that I got a crash course in how to help repair damaged Autobots. Alyssa and I spent most of the night running errands, holding wires and generally being the gophers for both Wheeljack and Ratchet. It reminded me of some scene from that old show M.A.S.H. This however wasn't some goofy show, this was real.

I think around the time the sun came up, eventually every one had been treated and either released or put in the care of the med bay. I felt dizzy and more than a bit confused by all of this, but I had done what had been asked of me that night with out question. Not to mention that I had been to check on Ironhide so many times that I think Ratchet was about to install a cot for me in there. What can I say, he saved Optimus' life. It could have very well have been Prime that took the header off of that cliff with Megatron, but this old soldier had done what his duty demanded of him. He'd saved the life of his leader, but more importantly to me, he'd saved the life of the man I loved.

I finally got chased out and told that he was going to be fine, and to stop worrying. That was when I headed off to find Optimus. I wondered around the med bay for ten minutes like some kind of fool, before I was finally caught by a certain medic and pointed in the direction of my Man's room. I walked in there and found him awake and sitting on the edge of the repair birth.

"Hey there," I grinned up at him.

He looked down at me and smiled some. The look in his eyes told me that he was still tired from all of this, but was doing the best he could to not show how awful he truly felt.

"I heard about what you did last night Angel," He looked down at me.

I blinked up at him in utter confusion, for some reason I was having the hardest time of my life focusing on any thing that morning.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what…" I trailed off, once again loosing my train of thought.

"I meant how you helped Ratchet and Wheeljack out, and how you keep checking on Ironhide. Thank you for that."

"Oh that," I still had that charming duh look plastered on my face, "He saved your life Op' there wasn't any thing else I could have done."

He shook his head at me, "He wasn't the only one who helped me. That was one heck of a shot you made there."

"What you mean Megatron?" I blinked. "I just did what I had to."

Now he was looking at me in concern. I didn't even realize I was acting funny. I just chalked it all up to being tired. There was something more to it however. I kind of zoned out for a second and then I heard the door open and Ratchet appeared.

"So what's going on?" He demanded.

"I'm sorry?"

The medic jerked his thumb in the direction of Prime and then continued, "He says that your acting funny, and you are. Your way to quiet."

A few seconds later he had me up sitting on the thing next to Optimus and was down looking in to my eyes with one of those flashlight thingies.

"Did you get checked out by the Human medic last night?" He asked.

I nodded, "yeah the government insisted that they look at the two of us before we were allowed to leave. It was quick but they said that we were fine."

"Well you're not fine, in fact if I didn't know personally that you hadn't been hurt. I'd swear up and down that you had a concussion."

"I don't…"I blinked, "do I?"

"You don't," Optimus cut in, "I have something equivalent to one."

Ratchet narrowed his eyes, "OH."

"What does, "oh" mean?" I asked.

"Just what I thought would happen," he sighed, "You still some how linked to this big lug here." He poked Prime, "You're picking up on what's wrong with him."

"I can do that?" I looked at him, still dazed.

"Well you apparently can now," He scooped me off the table and set me down on the floor, then looked over at Prime, "You, lay back down. You," he turned to look at me, "Follow me."

I got unceremoniously kicked out of the med bay and informed that I had better not come back until I had gotten a _DECENT_ breakfast, and gotten some _ACUTAL_ sleep. I was too worn down and tired to argue with the white and red mech like I normally would have. So I just shook my head and made my way off to the commissary. I gathered up something that I think may have been breakfast food and plopped my self down at one of the tables. I was startled when across from me some one gave a slight groan and shifted in their seat. I looked up and found Alyssa there with her head down on her arms and a cup of long cold coffee sitting in front of her. I reached over under the table with my foot and gave her a slight nudge.

"Hey sleeping beauty," I nudged her again, "Wake up."

I was rewarded with another groan and she raised her head to look at me.

"You look like hammered crap," She told me.

"Yes and you're such a prize your self this morning," I told her pointing out her own worry lines and dark circles under her eyes.

"Last night was a bad dream," she muttered, "Please I'm begging you, tell me last night was a bad dream."

"It's too early in the morning to start telling lies," I gazed down in to my own coffee. "Look at it this way hun, now they know we can handle our selves."

"I swear," She put her head back down and told me in a muffled voice, "I hope they don't put Megatron back together, because I have every single intention of dismantling the sliver creep."

"I think they are going to get him to the point where he's not in any danger of dying, and then leave it at that."

A few seconds later a tired looking Wheeljack appeared and spotted us, "hey girls."

I waved limply at him and went back to poking at my food.

"So how's Prime?" He asked me.

"Ratchet says he has to keep him under observation for the next 48 hours, or something like that. In case his concussion or what ever you guys call it has some bad effect on him. But he's going to be okay."

"I'm glad to hear it; I wanted to tell you Miss Angel that Ironhide's going to be fine too. He woke up a few seconds ago and started complaining that he hadn't managed to get rid of Megatron completely. If he was gonna fall of a mountain he could have at least done it right."

I grinned a bit at that and then let loose with a very loud long yawn, making my head throb just a bit. I rubbed it and this prompted Wheeljack to start giving me medical orders too.

"Well I guess it did happen, didn't it?" he told me.

"If you mean the thing between Optimus and Me, yeah it happened." I sighed.

"Well then finish eating and go back to bed, Ratchet had one set up for you in Prime's room."

"Really?" I was going back into dazed and confused mode.

"Yes," he told me, "Really. So finish that and then get some sleep. You two definitely earned your room and board last night."

"We just did what we had to do," I told him for both of us.

In response I got an affirmative grunt from Alyssa who continued to keep her head buried in her arms.

I looked down at my breakfast and sighed. I really didn't feel like eating, my stomach was doing the watusi, break dancing and doing the conga at the same time. Still that's what I'd been told to do and so I managed it. I had just finished it and was about to go back and try and hit the sack. When something happened that pretty much shook all of the weariness from me as the anger it inspired ran through me like molten mercury.

The thing that ticked me off so much to make me forget how bad I was feeling was a new report coming from CNN. Standing there in the remains of the battle ground from yesterday was one of those annoying reporters. One of those vapid blonds, the type who's life revolves around watching other people suffer and then broadcasting that suffering to the whole planet. She waved to the remains of the fight behind her and then turned back to the camera.

I wasn't the only person who noticed this. Someone else who did suddenly turned the volume up and I could hear the bimbo most clearly.

"… and that much devastation is all that remains here after the useless battle by the strange aliens that have come to this planet. Both the Autobots and Decepticons were a part of this and as you can see, there is almost nothing left.

Thought the Autobots claim that they are doing this for our own sake, it is hard to wonder, when we see places like this, do they really mean what they say. Or are they no better than the very beings that they accidentally brought to this world, along with their war."  
I wanted to scream at that. I wanted to jump up and rip the television out of its sockets. While I fumed some one changed the channel and again we saw the same things. Hundreds of people complaining because of the fight, none of them realizing just how close to the brink they had actually been.

I would have tossed my glass at the screen at that point thankfully some one changed it before I lost all self control and made a fool of my self. I had to bite my lips to keep from saying something foul as I stormed out. I had been wondering how much worse I could possibly get…I shouldn't have. I had my answer. All I could really do that that point was to hope at some point something would actually come out of all of this.


	7. We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 7

We Didn't Start the Fire: Part 7

Believe it or not, with in a few hours after that blond harpy got on the news and made the public think that the guys were just as bad as the people they were fighting. This, as I'm sure you can imagine didn't go over very well with most of the Autobots. In fact some of the grouchier ones more than made their opinions known to some of the people that were lined up outside of the ark waving those ridiculous little cardboard signs. I wouldn't have even given them much of a thought if they hadn't started getting down right nasty when poor Bluestreak came back

Some one tossed a rock through his windshield and several others promptly began every thing from keying him as he tried to get home to literally spiting on him. Seeing that was the last straw for me. A life time of anger over the mistreatment of people in the military suddenly boiled to the surface and I went storming out of the base.

"BACK OFF!" I demanded.

The whole crowed turned from him and then looked at me like I was crazy. Blue' took the chance and headed back into the ark as fast as he could while I stood there and fumed at the crowd. The blond airhead from this morning came at me with a mike and I promptly tore the thing out of her hand.

"GET that thing away from me you bimbo," I snarled, "I didn't come out here to talk to you; I came out here to chew out every single one of you fools!"

That took them all back for a second and the noise proceeded to die down almost completely. Right then I didn't care, I would have yelled at the top of my lungs if I had to, if that's what it took to get out what I had to say.

I was really upset, to the point of being beyond all reason. I had spent most of my life hearing tales about how people in the military had been mistreated. I had heard from my Dad all the horrid tales about what had happened when his generation had come home and now I was seeing it for my self. Some one, a whole group of some ones had laid their lives on the line to save the people of this country and this is how they were thanking them. It was more than I could take, and so I let them have it.

"HOW DARE any of you come out here and act like this! What right do you have to do this! What in the name of God almighty is wrong with the people in this country?" I took a deep breath and kept right on.

"IS this how you treat HEROES?! Some one who risked their lives to save yours! Do you realize what would have happened to all of you worthless monsters if they hadn't messed up your precious park a little bit!? This country wouldn't even be here to be a society of ingrates! We'd be dead.

"Understand that!? DEAD! They were trying to set off the volcano underneath the park. I guess if they had done that rather then been stopped you bleeding heart jerks would have still complained that the park was ruined than worry about all the DEAD PEOPLE!"

I still wasn't claming down and there was a whole pack of people now staring at me. I didn't care.

"You have no right to come here and call THEM anything. Our own people are so messed up its not even funny! They don't judge people by their skin color, by how much money they have, or what Gods they pray to! They love all life, and they put their own on the line to keep it safe.

And this, this miserable display is how you show them that you thank them! If this is the best you can do then maybe you should look some where else for you monsters! You want to see some one evil so bad? Then why don't all of you go and look in the dammed mirror!"

Now the whole crowd was looking at me like they were just then realizing what was going on. Just then realize what they had been doing and what kind of fools they had been making of them selves. I still wasn't placated though, I had one more thing to say.

"They didn't start any of the messes that we have on this planet; you have no right to call any of them any thing. So like I said be fore, BACK OFF!"

I snapped around and headed back into the ark, that little speech and taken what energy remained in me and as soon as I was in side, I promptly said down in the floor and buried my head in my arms. I was in the process of composing my self when I heard some one walk up to me. I looked up and seen most of the Autobots there. All of them were looking at me in something near shock. I don't know if it was because they hadn't thought any one would come to their defense, or because they hadn't thought that I would do some thing like that.

I sat there looking at them not knowing what was going to happen. What happened was some one started clapping for me and the next thing I knew all of them were literally applauding me. I looked up at them and wanted to start crying.

"Guys…"

"Don't you've earned it," Blue told me as it quieted. "IF any one around here thought that you weren't right for Optimus, what you just did…"

"Thanks…" I could feel my face bunching up like I was about to cry and I had to take off.

None of the guys took it the wrong way, I was just stressed. I got back to Optimus' room and found him there waiting for me. What I needed then was a hug and he had one.

"That was very brave you know," he told me as I held onto him.

"I wish you guys wouldn't keep on saying that, I'm not brave. I just did what needed to be done."

"Sometimes that's all it takes to be brave," He told me, "And Angel, we're not the only heroes around here."

I hugged him and finally started to settle down when the door chime went off and Alyssa popped through.

"Angel!" she told me, "You have GOT to come and see this."

She dragged me out to the front room where the guys had turned on the screen and there was a news cast on. That was the absolute last thing I wanted to see right then and I was about to tell her that I didn't care when I caught what the person on the other line was saying.

"…And so from the bottom of all of our hearts here we would like to offer an official and sincere apology to all of the Autobots at the ark, its clear that we were out of line and complete fools for the broadcast we made earlier in the day. Further more we would like to thank the young lady that appeared at the ark this morning for putting all of us in our places. It was something that we needed."

Alyssa turned to me and gave me a huge hug, "You're a hit!"

I just stood there with my mouth hanging open and trying to comprehend exactly what it was that I had done. Everyone thought that was funny as hell and I finally got chased back off to keep Optimus company. On the way there I finally ran into someone that I had wanted to see. Old Ironhide was up and around and sitting there grinning at me as I headed back to where I'd left Prime.

"Hey thar," He drawled. "I heard whatch'all did."

"Uhh.. Yeah apparently so has the whole dang world, me? I'm still trying to figure out what I was that I did."

"Apparently just being you is plenty enough darlin'." He grinned at me, "Now ya better get going."

I had to shake my head at him. I had just gone out and told people what was on my mind, how I had felt. I didn't realize that could be special but apparently it was. Right then I didn't really care all I wanted to do was to go back and get some sleep. There was however one more thing I had to deal with before I finally got some sleep.

This one turned out to be the most ridiculous thing that I had ever seen. Apparently Alyssa had been plotting her own revenge on old Meggs from the moment that this had all gotten started. I told Ironhide I'd see him later and then started heading off to find Optimus yet again. That was when I heard it.

It was a very strange noise and it was coming from some where close by. What it sounded like was some one taking something apart with one of those old fashioned screw drivers. It insinuated its self into my brain and I had to go looking to see what it was. I did eventually find what was making it. Then I really wished I hadn't.

Sitting there on the ground was what looked like a pile of gun parts and sitting next to them, with her screwdriver in hand was none other than Alyssa. She finished the bit she was working on and watched gleefully as some part of the firearm dropped off and fell into the box.

"Is that who I think it is?" I asked as I walked up.

She just grinned at me and continued on with what she was doing.

"Do I even want to know?"

"Probably not," she told me.

"Your awful," I shook my head.

"You think this is awful, wait till Hook gets him back…sans the screws."

That took a second to sink in and I made a very loud groan as I headed back to hopefully find some kind of peace and quiet.


	8. Epilog

We Didn't Start the Fire: Epilog.

To this day I'm still not sure how Alyssa managed to get her hands on Megatron in the first place but I do believe every single one of us heard the groans that came from poor Hook when the first of two boxes reached the Nemesis. She made a point of sending the parts and the widgets to hold the thing together, separately.

Almost every one there looked at the box and couldn't guess what in the name of god possessed us to do something like this. It wasn't some thing the Autobots would have done. No this could have only come from some one as crazy as my friend and her engineer boyfriend.

Speaking of which they finally did decide to let her parents go. I think they had learned their lesson on all of this. Even if they hadn't realized that the relationship between their daughter and Wheeljack wasn't going to change, they had at least learned that they needed to keep their mouths shut.  
It was in seeing them off that the funniest thing of all of this happened. Alyssa stood there and waved goodbye to them and then grinned up at Jack as the plane finally blasted away.

"So, we've passed the first hurdle in our relationship, now what?" she grinned.

"Well I've been looking into some of human customs." He suddenly turned sheepish.

"Oh? What for?" She asked.

"Well according to the human traditions when a guy wants a girl to know he's in love with her, he's supposed to give her some kind of gift to symbolize that right?"

She nodded at him, suddenly leery of what was coming, "Jack, I don't really want a ring."

He grinned at her with his eyes, "I know so I didn't get you a ring."

He produced a small black box from somewhere and held it down to her. She looked up at him questioningly and then took the box from him. After a few seconds of hesitation she opened the box and stared at what was in there.

"Umm… Jack?"

"Yeah?"

She pulled out the necklace and stared at it. What it was turned out to be a small bolt attached to a long gold chain. She stared at it for a second and then the realization that she had seen this one and lots of similar ones just a few days before.

"You…" She had to cover her mouth to keep from cracking up, "You took one out!?"

"Yeah, and took it to the jewelry shop and had it made into a necklace for you."

She held the thing in her hand for a few more seconds and then grinned, as she reached out and slipped the chain over her head.

"Well I accept," She beamed at him, "And I can't think of anything that would have suited me better than this."

"Well it fit your personality and sense of humor so …"

She grinned at him, and gave him a long hug then the two of them headed back.

Down in the nemesis just at that point Hook had to deal with a bit of a problem.

"DON'T yell at me Megatron! I Don't KNOW where the last bolt is!!"


	9. Author's notes and Song Lyrics

We Didn't Start the Fire: Lyrics and Authors notes.

Well I hope everyone liked this latest chapter in my series. It was one of the longer ones that I have done in a while and one of the more complex. Anyhow, the following are the lyrics to, as usual, the song that got this one going. Hope you like them.

RP1

We Didn't Start The Fire

Harry Truman, Doris Day  
Red China, Johnny Ray

South Pacific, Walter Winchell, Joe DiMaggio

Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon  
Studebaker, Television

North Korea, South Korea, Marilyn Monroe

Rosenbergs, H-bomb  
Sugar Ray, Panmunjom

Brando, The King and I  
And The Catcher In The Rye

Eisenhower, Vaccine  
England's got a new queen

Maciano, Liberace, Santayana goodbye

We didn't start the fire  
It was always burning since the world's been turning  
We didn't start the fire  
No, we didn't light it  
But we tried to fight it

Joseph Stalin, Malenkov  
Nasser and Prokofiev

Rockefeller, Campanella, Communist Bloc

Roy Cohn  
Juan Peron  
Toscanini, Dacron

Dien Bien Phu Falls, Rock Around the Clock

Einstein, James Dean,  
Brooklyn's got a winning team

Davy Crockett, Peter Pan  
Elvis Presley, Disneyland

Bardot, Budapest  
Alabama, Khrushchev

Princess Grace  
Peyton Place

Trouble in the Suez

We didn't start the fire  
It was always burning, since the world's been turning  
We didn't start the fire  
No, we didn't light it  
But we tried to fight it

Little Rock, Pasternak,  
Mickey Mantle, Kerouac

Sputnik, Chou En-Lai,  
Bridge On The River Kwai

Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle,  
California baseball

Starkwether, Homicide,  
Children of Thalidomide

Buddy Holly, Ben Hur  
Space Monkey, Mafia

Hula Hoops, Castro  
Edsel is a no-go

U2, Syngman Rhee  
payola and Kennedy

Chubby Checker, Psycho,  
Belgians in the Congo

We didn't start the fire  
It was always burning, since the world's been turning  
We didn't start the fire  
No, we didn't light it  
But we tried to fight it

Hemingway, Eichman  
Stranger in a Strange Land

Dylan  
Berlin  
Bay of Pigs invasion

Lawrence of Arabia  
British Beatlemania

Ole Miss, John Glenn  
Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X  
British Politician sex

J.F.K. blown away  
What else do I have to say?

We didn't start the fire  
It was always burning, since the world's been turning  
We didn't start the fire  
No, we didn't light it  
But we tried to fight it

Birth control, Ho Chi Minh  
Richard Nixon back again

Moonshot  
Woodstock  
Watergate, punk rock

Begin  
Reagan

Palestine  
Terror on the airline

Ayatollah's in Iran  
Russians in Afghanistan

Wheel of Fortune, Sally Ride,  
heavy metal, suicide

Foreign debts  
Homeless Vets  
AIDS, Crack, Bernie Goetz

Hypodermics on the shores  
China's under martial law  
Rock and roller, cola wars  
I can't take it anymore

We didn't start the fire  
It was always burning, since the world's been turning  
We didn't start the fire But when we are gone It will still burn on and on and on…


End file.
